Champion
by clicketykeys
Summary: Vacy's weakness for credits puts her and Corso in a tight situation; Corso gets her to make a promise that she isn't sure she can keep. One-shot; no spoilers. T for violence and suggestive language.


**"Champion"**

_[Note: Obviously, this takes place after the events of "Harder Than It Looks," since it's set on Taris and that's where you go once you're done with Coruscant. I don't think there's any spoilers here.]_

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><p>Vacy Fiorst chewed on her lower lip, looking hungrily past the well-armored man pacing in front of his tent.<p>

A tent that held a very large, very obviously locked chest.

"Riggs!" she hissed. "Think we can take him?"

Corso Riggs chuckled, shaking his head. "Captain, it's your call."

Vacy chewed on her lip for a few moments more, then activated her stealth belt. Corso followed suit, and they carefully threaded their way past several nasty-looking groups of Tarisian pirates before crouching behind a stack of crates. Vacy peeked up, mentally taking inventory of what armor the pirate wore and what weapons she could see… and, Corso figured, probably also imagining what all might fit inside that locked chest. A fellow with gear as good as that pirate was sporting – well, who knew what all he might have tucked away.

She hesitated, then nodded. "I think we can take him. That blessing we got from the Jedi we passed won't last all day anyhow, so we might as well put it to good use." She rifled through the satchel she'd started referring to as her 'Darmas-bag.' Just seeing the damn thing made Corso's jaw tighten, but he didn't say anything. "Blast. No stims, though." She peeked over the crates again, and Corso grinned, seeing the longing in her gaze. "I still think we can take him."

"Well, we do need to clear out a few more of these pirates," Corso admitted. "But it's not usually like you to take on the biggest, toughest, meanest-looking one out of all of 'em," he added, looking at her rather directly.

Vacy fidgeted, adjusting the settings on Flashy. "Welllll… it's… it's important to challenge yourself on occasion," she hedged. "And c'mon, don't he look like he'd provide a challenge for us?"

That much was plainly true. Corso sighed, and set his rifle down, then scooted close and put his hands on her shoulders. "Captain," he said quietly, and Vacy was a little annoyed at how her heart started beating faster. "You know that I'll do everything in my power to keep you from gettin' seriously hurt. I need you to promise to do what I'm gonna ask you to."

"Okay?" Vacy asked, feeling a little worried now. "What is it?"

He shook his head. "I need you to trust me on this, Captain. I need you to go ahead an' give me your word ahead of time, cuz I know it's somethin' you ain't gonna like. But if you trust me… you'll swear it."

Reaching up, she lifted his hands from her shoulders and held them in hers. Right now she was really glad that they were both wearing gloves, because he was making her nervous enough that her palms were getting sweaty. "All right, then, Riggs. I swear I'll do whatever it is you ask next."

Oh, how he wished he'd had a holocam to record that moment. Her voice – her eyes – the complete confidence she showed in him shook him to his core. They were both covered in mud and slime, scrabbling around a planet full of pirates and ravening plague vermin, and in that moment he knew there was nowhere he'd rather be than right there at her side.

Corso took a breath to steady himself. "Captain, if I go down, _you run_. You run like hell and get yourself somewhere safe. You can send a med droid back to these coordinates to take care of me later." She was shaking her head, protesting, but he set his jaw. "You gave your word, Captain."

She scowled at him, but it was clear as anything he wasn't going to change his mind. "Well all right, then, Riggs," she retorted, maybe a bit more sharply than was absolutely necessary. "Guess I'll just have to keep your sorry hide upright." She tossed that little ponytail of hers, tilting her nose in the air. "Golly, and here I was thinkin' it might be somethin' like 'Gimme a kiss for luck.'"

And somehow everything clicked, and Corso grinned roguishly, picking his rifle back up. "No, Captain, you've made it pretty darn clear that's somethin' you _would_ like."

Vacy's jaw dropped, but then she just laughed as she dropped to a knee behind the crates and aimed Flashy carefully at the pirate. He chattered forth a flurry of bolts, and she followed up with a grenade and a single shot to set it off.

They'd worked together long enough that they had their routine down pretty smoothly. By the time Vacy finished off that first volley, Corso had pulled the pirate in close with his harpoon, and she quick-stepped around behind and gave the merc a taste of both Flashy and Kablam.

He was bleeding now… but so was Corso. Vacy forced herself to focus on the fight, hitting with quick, powerful shots, and occasionally lobbing a grenade or two while Flashy cooled back down. Giving the pirate a Smuggler Special made him double over in pain – he nearly dropped his weapon as his hands instinctively went to cradle the injured area – and gave her a few seconds to grab the kolto pistol Darmas had given her and hit Corso with a few pellets.

But almost before she'd dropped that back in the bag and grabbed Flashy and Kablam again, the pirate had recovered. Stars, he was tough. Vacy looked at Corso, then at the pirate, and for the first time, she was afraid. She did her best to ignore the panic that rose up when she remembered the promise she'd made.

If they were going to pull this off, it was going to take every bit of the legendary luck of the smuggler.

_Stick with the plan_, she told herself. They'd worked on strategies for fighting together. It'd worked well so far. She took a breath to clear her head and double-shot the pirate again.

"A little help here," rasped Corso, and Vacy's eyes widened when she saw that he was coughing up blood.

She leaned close to the pirate. "Hey sexy," she purred, loud enough that he could hear her over the blaster fire. "Wanna see my butt?" That certainly got his attention, but when he turned, she got him right on the bridge of the nose with the wonderfully-rounded rear end of Kablam. The pirate let out a muffled curse, and Vacy grinned, then grabbed the kolto pistol and fired a few more healing pellets at Corso. "I got one on my other gun, too, sucker!" she crowed gleefully.

That was enough to keep his attention on her, which was painful, but effective, as she wasn't hurt all that bad. Of course, a couple powerful shots from the enormous gun he carried made her reassess her clever idea. She found herself knocked to the side and had to scrape a roll to get a decent angle again. But when she got there, what she saw chilled her.

Corso was on the ground, and the pirate was aiming at his head. Vacy heard the whine of his gun even above the hum of Flashy prepping his chatter-volley, and she prayed that her luck hadn't run out.

Corso tilted his head up and looked at her. She held his gaze a moment longer.

_Takatakatakatakatak!_ Five shots rang out.

Even before the pirate fell to the ground, Vacy had grabbed her Darmas-bag and was scrambling to Corso's side. She reached in, grabbed a revitastik, and broke it under his nose. He breathed, coughed, and inhaled more deeply, then groaned.

Blinking, he scowled at her. "You were supposed to run," he grumbled. "That was your promise – I go down, you run."

She snapped a revitastik under her own nose and breathed in the healing spores. "Your head was still up; doesn't count. You weren't down, you were just … low." She grimaced, rubbing at her nose. "Bleaugh. This stuff always makes my mouth feel pasty. Vacy looked at Corso again. "Y'want another'n?"

Corso groaned again, then carefully pushed himself up. "Nah. I'll be all right." He glowered at her. "You _were_ supposed to run," he said again.

She sighed. "Riggs, if he'd actually taken you out, I would've."

She said that a little more easily than he was comfortable with. "Really?" Corso asked.

The hesitation that came next was more what he'd expected. "I don't know," Vacy finally admitted. She smiled at her partner gently, and shrugged. "I'm really glad it didn't come to that, though." Hopping up, she grinned. "C'mon, let's go see what he had stashed away!"

They jogged across the open area and into the pirate's tent. Vacy made short work of the lock on the chest, and Corso resolved not to put anything important in the trunk under his bed.

"Blast!" the smuggler swore, and Corso leaned forward to look past her. There in the trunk were dozens of neatly-stacked packages. "It _would_ be spice," Vacy grumbled. She let out a moan of frustration. "All that, and I don't even get _any money_ out of it? It's just not _fair!_ Why does the universe hate me?"

"Um, Captain?" Corso reached past her, noting that one of the piles was a little higher than the rest. He dug down through, and pulled out a datapad. "Maybe you should take a look at this," he said, handing it to her.

It was encrypted, but all that meant to Vacy was that it was actually worth something. A little tweaking of the software and…

"Mother of a sith," Vacy breathed.

Corso's brows lifted. He hadn't heard that particular epithet from her before. "Uh. Is that good, or bad, Captain?"

She looked up at him, and he'd swear he could see the credit signs sparkling in her eyes. "Riggs, we're rich."

He took a few steps toward her. "How rich?" he asked.

She handed him the sliced datapad. "Buy-new-armor-for-both-of-us rich," she said. "Upgrade-every-last-bolt-of-the-Wonder rich." She grinned, her eyes narrowing. "Hire-a-bounty-hunter-to-go-after-Skavak rich," she added.

It took Corso several moments to find the ability to speak. He couldn't seem to look away from the number on the screen. The very, very large number. It wasn't until Vacy took the datapad out of his hands and dropped it into her Darmas-bag that he came to his senses.

She was shaking her head. "No. Wait." She was scowling fiercely – any mention of Skavak set her on the warpath.

It was actually kind of cute.

Vacy lobbed a grenade into the trunk, then started jogging briskly back the way they'd come, toward the outpost. "Scratch that last, because if there's one thing I want to do _myself_, it is **_kill_** that low-down, dirty, thieving…"

As he jogged along behind her, Corso's brows lifted again, even higher than before.

_[Concluding note: So this was based on Vee and Cor taking on a champion all by themselves, on purpose, and winning._

_Also? Every time Corso says "Right behind ya, Captain!" it comes across as "Don't worry, Captain, I'm watchin' yer… back." *blush* Check out the screenshots if you don't believe me!]_


End file.
